Aveust 18, 1899.] 
is very interesting and instructive. Attention 
should, however, be called to the fact that the 
correct name is not Foehm (Fohm), as it there 
appears, but Foehn (Fohn), or Foen (Fon), the 
form with h being preferred. ochn is derived 
probably from the Italian favonio, which in turn 
is from the Latin favonius, the name of a gentle 
west wind. Hence the Italian west wind be- 
comesa Swisssouth wind. In Latin and Italian 
the word is masculine; in German it is usually 
treated as masculine, but Grimm quotes an in- 
teresting passage from an old gloss in which it 
is used as feminine. The character of this wind 
is as uncertain as the gender, the etymological 
meaning being ‘the favoring one,’ but the fol- 
lowing extracts translated from Schiller’s 
William Tell show how the Swiss on Lake 
Lucerne dread the Foehn, ‘the mighty spirit,’ 
as it has been called. Ruodi, the fisherman, 
exclaims: ‘‘The Foehn has broken loose ; you 
see how wild the lakeis. I cannot steer against 
storm and waves.’’ Baumgarten answers: 
“God help you! Howl pity you!’’ In an- 
other place Tell says: ‘‘ When the Foehn sweeps 
down from:its ravines, the people put out their 
fires, and the boats hastily seek the harbor.”’ 
Extinguishing the fires is still a custom, even a 
law in some parts of Switzerland—in Uri, for 
instance, which is especially exposed to the 
violence of the Foehn. 
CHARLES BUNDY WILSON. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF Iow4, 
DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN. 
THE OPENING OF THE MOUTH AS EXPRESSION. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Charles Dar- 
win ascribed the open mouth in surprise and 
astonishment to several causes, viz., for quiet- 
ness and effectiveness of breathing, and by 
mere relaxation of muscles. It occurs to me 
that a deeper organic reason may have its force, 
namely, that the open mouth is attention sign, 
andis a primitive and constant reaction with the 
young of many animals for the reception of 
food —for example, with birds. Any sound or 
other stimulus immediately causes the young 
bird to extend its mouth. I have some evidence 
that with very young infants every stimulus of 
sound or sight causes opening of the mouth, 
often in sucking form, and the smile of the in- 
SCIENCE. 
219 
fant when the finger is pointed at it may be 
either nascent or degraded sucking. The com- 
mon and highly useful tendency of the very 
young to open the mouth to all stimuli, visual, 
aural, etc., continues as a survival in after life, 
being especially brought out with stimuli of 
high intensity and unusual quality, and thus 
becomes a mark of surprise and astonishment. 
It is also noteworthy that with many young 
boys and girls there is a tendency to open the 
mouth under any attention. The rise of smil- 
ing and laughter as connected with wit and 
humor—at the basis of which lies surprise—is 
thus evident as a kind of attention expression, 
Certainly the primary expression of the mouth 
is a feeding expression, and that this has been 
modified and evolved in connection with a 
variety of attention phenomena seems probable, 
and it would be worth while to make a very 
detailed study of expression in infants and 
young animals with this point in view. 
Hiram M. STANLEY. 
‘LAKE Forest, ILz., August 8, 1899. 
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 
OBSERVATORY OF YALE UNIVERSITY. 
THE annual report of this observatory states 
that the heliometer has been used for making 
the final measures of the parallax series of stars 
having large proper motion. The study of the 
refraction of highly colored red stars has been 
continued. The photographic observations of 
the meteors in November, 1898, gave sixteen 
trails, eight of which were of Leonids. Four 
of these were in plates at both of the stations 
occupied. Dr.. Elkin has published in the 
Astrophysical Journal a careful discussion of the 
position of the radiant obtained from the trails. 
FLOWER OBSERVATORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
Vou. I., Part Il., of the publications of this 
observatory contains the discussion of the zenith 
telescope observations—October 1, 1896—Au- 
gust 16, 1898. The plan of this work for in- 
vestigating the variation of latitude is that 
proposed by Kiistner in 1890 and has been most 
zealously and carefully carried out by Professor 
Doolittle. The groups of stars, each of which 
is included in about two hours of right ascen- 
